Another year, another iPhone time slip

Spring forward, fall backwards, how hard can it be?

US iPhone owners are again the last to know that spring has arrived, as their handsets decide to drop back by an hour instead of jumping forward as one might expect.

Not that spring is here for everyone – the Scottish Highlands are still swathed in their traditional March snowfall – but in some parts of the world the clocks are already shifting into daylight savings time. At least, those not in an iPhone are shifting, as Apple's platform once again fails to make the transition into summer.

This time around, the problem didn't hit everyone, but the internet is alive with complaints of iPhones in the first US states to change shifting the wrong way – putting them two hours out of alignment and seriously annoying a vocal minority. Given that iPhones have been plagued with such problems before, and that the issue receives more than its fair share of publicity from a press eager to expose Apple's fallibility, one has to question the judgement of anyone who wakes up after a time change and relies exclusively on their iPhone for guidance ...

The UK won't be shifting by an hour until 27 March, but when it does, those with an iPhone might like to switch on a radio or check a watch before assuming that Apple has got it right. ®